The Official Peter Coyote Web Site

Coymoon Creations


SPRING 2012
NEWSLETTER


May 30, 2012

To mark the 100th anniversary of Universal, the studio will be releasing a 30th anniversary edition of the magical adventure, "E.T. THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL, on BluRay in October. The film has been remastered with all new visuals and sound. The combo pack will include the BluRay, a DVD and a digital copy, as well as loads of special features. The 1982 film, directed by Steven Spielberg, starred a young Drew Barrymore, Henry Thomas, Dee Wallace and Peter as the warm and gentle scientist.

In 1982, the classic film became the biggest blockbuster of the year, ranking #1 over 16 different weekends. Even today, "E.T." remains the fourth most successful movie of all-time in the United States. Nominated for nine Academy Award, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Writing and Best Screenplay, the film took home four statuettes for Best Visual Effects, Best Sound Effects Editing, Best Sound and Best Music for John Williams' memorable score. When it premiered,  it captured the imaginations of people young, old and everyone in between in a way that was unparalleled in modern movie history," said Craig Kornblau, President of Universal Studios Home Entertainment. "A global cultural phenomenon - and the biggest box-office blockbuster of its day - E.T. brought out the child in all of us."

In conjunction with the Cannes premiere of Walter Salles' screen adaptation of Jack Kerouac's "On the Road", Peter was interviewed by the French publication, Télérama at his Marin County home. French journalist Lawrence Rigoulet describes the actor's treehouse residence as having the air of a Japanese temple in the cool quiet of carefully cut greenery. Peter refers to the famous poet as an "absolute model".  "The perfect outsider, the poet wandering in search of an authentic experience that crossed America like a poem..." On the coffee table in his living room, there is one book. A collection of songs by Bob Dylan. Peter explains, "Like a Rolling Stone, Dylan is the ideal extension of 'On the Road'. What does it feel like when you're in the street 'as a complete stranger'? That's the question posed by thousands of kids. They were seen landing in the streets of San Francisco, fleeing their family, their past, to find a new community, without status, without history, eager to change the world on the spot and invent their lives from scratch. "

It was just about a year ago when Peter performed at the sixth annual Symphony in the Flint Hills in Kansas. Each spring there is a gathering, a coming together of art, nature and the kindred souls who appreciate them both. I've posted a conversation with Peter along with some photos from that event.

May 2, 2012

The United States Golf Association has announced the production of "1962 U.S. Open: Jack's First Major," the USGA's first-ever film produced for network television. The one-hour documentary, narrated by Peter, chronicles Jack Nicklaus' first U.S. Open victory in 1962 at Oakmont Country Club, which set in motion one of the most prolific careers in professional golf and at the same time ignited one of the greatest rivalries in sport between Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer. The film will premiere in the United States on Sunday, June 17, 2012, at 2 p.m. EDT on NBC (check local listings) prior to the network's live final-round coverage of the 112th U.S. Open Championship at The Olympic Club in San Francisco. The film will make its international debut Sunday, June 10 on Sky Sports (SS3).

April 13, 2012

An indie film, called HERE, directed and co-written by Braden King, has been making the film festival circuit for the past year. This weekend it premiered in New York City. The romantic drama stars Ben Foster and Lubna Azabal with Peter taking on the role of storyteller. Set against the gorgeous landscape of Armenia, the film chronicles a brief but intense relationship between an American satellite-mapping engineer (Foster) and an expatriate photographer (Azabal) who impulsively decide to travel across the remote countryside together. Stephen Holden of the NY Times writes, "There are vistas in Braden King’s metaphysical road movie, 'Here,' that are so beautiful, you want to step through the screen and disappear into the Armenian landscape where much of it was filmed."

March 10, 2012

The Boston Globe reports that Lexington filmmaker Rick Beyer's new documentary will be narrated by Peter. "The Ghost Army" is a film about tactical military deception during WWII. In June 1944, a secret U.S. Army unit went into action in Normandy. The weapons they deployed were decidedly unusual: hundreds of inflatable tanks and a one-of-a-kind collection of sound effects records. Their mission was to use bluff, deception, and trickery to save lives. For the last four years, Beyer has been working on this documentary. Through more than 20 interviews, rare archive footage, as well as hundreds of sketches, paintings and photographs created by the men themselves, the film will bring to life the extraordinary story of The Ghost Army. Beyer expects to complete the film sometime this summer.

On March 20th, THIS IS NOT A MOVIE will be released on DVD and Blu-ray. The Mexican production, filmed during the summer of 2008, was written and directed by Olallo Rubio, but the dialogue is in English. Edward Furlong takes on the leading role as Pete Nelson. With the end of the world imminent, Pete locks himself inside a Las Vegas hotel. There, he tries to understand his confused reality influenced by film, TV, pop culture, disinformation, drugs and propaganda. The film, which premiered in Mexico in January 2011, features an original soundtrack score by Guns N Roses guitar legend, Slash. He describes the film as "very cutting-edge, very artistic, and a little bit trippy. It's dark and jagged and a bit surreal, in and out of reality."

Peter will be among those interviewed for a new documentary coming out this summer. Mike “Zappy” Zapolin and spiritual guru Deepak Chopra, creators of the upcoming documentary "The Reality of Truth", not only identify the problem of perception but also analyze specific techniques to break through to a new reality. Highly controversial in nature, the documentary introduces audiences to the modalities people have used throughout history to transcend into an alternate reality, such as prayer, music and  psychedelics. They suggest these techniques may be the breakthrough humankind needs to move into the future.